Synopsis
This book presents all the central insights of mystical experience, and relates them in a practical way to psychological understandings of spiritual maturity. Topics covered include the unimportance of belief, the “deep structure” of religion, rebuttals of orthodoxy, cosmologies and theories of enlightenment, types of spiritual teachers and groups, the mechanics of alternative healing and dreams as they relate to spiritual progress, and more. Over 20 different spiritual practices are reviewed, and 48 illustrations and lively graphics make for easy reading. It is intentionally succinct, clarifying only the most important core truths in each chapter area. If you are sick of all the fighting and political nonsense around religion, and long to experience something deeper, you are bound to appreciate how my more systematic approach endeavors to takes you to a deeper experience, by starting to dissolve all the cultural and linguistic conditioning which, inevitably, confine us spiritually as we grow up. Short appendices are devoted to more detailed understandings of meditation, and crucial, usually overlooked philosophical understandings connect with the religions.
About the Author
I was a disaffected, and nerdy ADD kid from Providence, RI in grade school and prep school; I studied zoology and anthropology in college (Duke Univ.), worked in small-time show business for four years, mostly as as juggler; was a technical writer for a small computer company and a novel-writer on the side for five years (rejected by fourteen publishers), got a Masters degree in Community Counseling (Georgia State U.) and worked in mental health, mostly as a drug counselor, over the course of twelve years; was a full-time spiritual seeker in Hindu-related ashrams for six years, travelled extensively in India, Mexico and South America; got married to my wife Marsha and (jointly) decided not to have children, got a PhD (Temple Univ.) in Religious Studies and taught mostly as a adjunct professor over the course of fifteen years, and finally semi-retired to became a freelance teacher, counselor, lecturer and dreamworker in and around Philadelphia, PA. Universal Spiritual Philosophy and Practice is my first published work, and took me 61 years write!! In rough chronological order, my spiritual pedigree involves Episcopalianism, Catholicism, Transcendental Meditation, the Vedanta Society, Devotional Hinduism, (ISKON, but mostly Siddha Yoga), Sufism, Won and Zen Buddhism, and agnostically oriented self-inquiry (TAT Foundation). I don't know if the insights in my book will help anyone, but they sure helped me... I've been "cooked" by a number of therapists and spiritual masters, prominent and otherwise.
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